Counterbalanced coupler operating mechanism



July 31, 1956 E. R. HAUER ETAL COUNTERBALANCED COUPLER OPERATINGMECHANISM Filed March 5, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Center a Gray July 31,1956 R. HAU ER EI'AL 2,756,880

COUNTERBALANCED COUPLER OPERATING MECHANISM Filed March 5, 1953 2Sheets-She 2 mmvrozaa [ow/9W0 #0055, 5% 5mm I #587619. 2y fiMw-x/ irrvCOUNTERBALAN CED COUPLER OPERATING MECHANISM Edward R. Hauer andFrederick J. Herter, Richmond, Va. Application March 5, 1953, Serial No.340,608 8 Claims. (Cl. 213-166) This invention relates to coupleroperating mechanism for the couplers of railway cars, and moreparticularly to a means to improve the functioning of such mechanism, sothat the operating mechanism will at least tend to prevent cars frombecoming uncoupled in trains due, to high acceleration o-r decelerationresulting from runin or run-out of slack such as occurs when brakes areapplied or released, or when the forces of gravity operate on grades tocause cars to become suddenly bunched or stretched.

The most commonly used coupler operating devices in use today are soformed as to provide an overbalancing Weight on one side of the axis ofrotation of the rod to bias the rod in a direction of rotation oppositeto that required to operate the coupler, the theory being that thisoverbalancing weight will prevent the rod from rotating, due to servicemovements of the car, suificiently to accidentally operate the coupler.But when a car equipped with such an overbalanced coupler operatingdevice is subjected to sudden changes in velocity the inertia of theoverbalanced parts of the device, augments the inertia of the handleparts of the device and, therefore, increases the moment to produceuncoupling, and if this moment is sufiicient it actually will uncouplethe coupler. Consequently it is the principal object of our invention toprovide a coupler operating device comprising a rod so formed as toprovide a mass above the horizontal axis of rotation of the rod whichexerts a counter moment operating in one direction of rotation to asnearly as possible balance the mass below the horizontal axis ofrotation exerting a moment operating in the opposite direction ofrotation. Therefore, if our device is applied to cars in a train and issubjected to sudden forces in either direction horizontally, thereshould be no rotating of the rod by such forces, because the rod iscounterbalanced about its axis of rotation.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing description of the invention, having reference to theaccompanying drawing wherein like reference characters indicate likeparts.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a coupler operating rod having thecounterbalance feature applied thereto and showing the attachment ofsaid rod to a car coupler.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 33, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an end elevation of the rod shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of a coupler operating rod integrally formedso as to include the counterbalance feature.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is an end elevation of Fig. 6.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 4 of the drawings the car end sill isprovided with a car coupler 10 which is of the usual bottom operatedrotary type, having a pair of spaced lugs 11-41 projecting from a bottomsurface nited States Patent 0 2,756,886 Patented July 31, 1956 thereofand adapted to pivotally support therebetween one end of the lock lifter12. The lock lifter 12 is provided at its other end with a pivotalconnection 13 for supporting the lever end 14 of a link, which isattached at its upper end to the coupler lock, not shown, within thecoupler head. The lock lifter 12 is provided with a vertical eyetherethrough intermediate of its ends, into which eye extends the hookedend 15 of the coupler operating rod. Adjacent the hooked end 15 the rodextends substantially horizontally a short distance, as at 16,

' and then inclines upwardly and'inwardly toward the car,

as at 17. A bracket 18 is attached in any desired manner to the car endadjacent an outer corner thereof and this bracket is provided with anopening through which the outer end of portion 17 of the rod extends,forming the outer bearing for the rod. The rod slides longitudinally inthis bearing as the coupler moves from side to side. At the outer end ofportion 17 the rod is turned downwardly and formed into the handleportion 19, which extends outwardly away from the car end. The weight ofthis handle portion is to one side of the axis of rotation of the rod,as is clearly seen in Fig. 4, and thus tends to bias any accidentalrotation of the rod in a clockwise direction, which is opposite to thedirection of rotation of the rod to operate the coupler.

At the inner end of the rod, there is welded thereto an upstanding lug20, the upper end of which is designed to abut a small projection 21,welded to the side of the coupler in the path of any upward movement ofthe lug 20 without rotation of the rod. This is for the purpose ofpreventing any bouncing of the inner end of the rod and associated partssufiicient to unlock the coupler. Of course, when the rod is manuallyrotated in an anticlockwise direction to unlock the coupler, the lug 20would also be rotated from under the projection 21 and thus notinterfere with the normal operation of the device.

The body portion 17 of such coupler operating rods must be formed so asto extend outwardly and downwardly away from the car end sufficiently toclear train lines and other equipment installed in that area of the car.The more such rods are bent outwardly, as for example as shown in theKinne Patents No. 1,923,674 and No. 1,923,675 of August 22, 1933, themore overbalancing weight the rod will have. It will be noted that mostof this overbalancing weight occurs below the axis of rotation of therod. If, therefore, such rods are on the front end of cars moving atconsiderable speed and the velocity is suddenly changed, the inertia ofthe handle and overbalancing parts of the rod will produce a mo- 3 mentto at least tend to uncouple the coupler.

Consequently to produce a weight above the axis of rotation of the rodsufficient to produce a counter moment to as nearly as possible balancethe moment produced by the parts below the axis of rotation, we haveshown a portion of rod 25 having ends 2626 turned at right anglesthereto and welded to the body portion 17 of the operating rod so as toproject therefrom at an angle substantially as shown in Fig. 4. Theangle of projection from the vertical varies in accordance with theextent the rod 17 is bent outwardly from the axis of rotation of the rodto suit the particular car conditions. Referring now to Fig. 4 it willbe seen that the moment FZC is constant and is produced by gravity. Themoments Fa and Flb below and above the axis of rotation of the rod areof the same values, but the direction of the horizontal forces areopposite; that is, when moment Fa is clockwise, moment Flb iscounterclockwise, and vice versa, depending on the direction of movementof the car. The constant moment FZC when added to moment Flb will beslightly greater than moment Fa, and thus the rod is provided with ahorizontal component 3 to cause the rod handle to rest against thebracket 18 in the absence of a horizontal. force. against the rod.

In Figs. 5 and 6 is illustrated a coupler operating rod wherein the roditself is bent outwardly and upwardly from the axis of rotation toprovide the counterbalance toproduce the moments above and below theaxis of rotation of the rod, and which is clearly evident when viewingFig. 7 of the drawing. In these figures of the drawing, the samereference numerals are used to describe the parts which correspond tolike parts in Figs. l-4, and since they are substantially identical itis not deemed necessary to repeat the description thereof.

We claim:

I. An operating mechanism for acarcouple-r, said mechanism comprising arotatable rod' adapted to be connected at one end to a lock litter of acar coupler to operate said coupler upon rotation of said rod in onedirection, a handle portion formed at the other end of said rod torotate said rod on its axis of rotation said rod adapted to swing bodilyabout a single support adjacent said handle, said rod being formed toprovide one mass above the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod andanother mass below said longitudinal axis, said masses upon applicationof a horizontal force, to said rod will exert substantiallycounterbalancing moments operating in opposite directions of rotation.

2. An operating mechanism for car couplers as set forth in claim 1wherein the moment exerted by the mass above the longitudinal axis ofrotation of said rod is not less than the moment exerted by the massbelow the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod.

3. An operating mechanism for car couplers as set forth in claim 1wherein the moment exerted by the mass above the longitudinal axis ofrotation of said rod is greater than the moment exerted by the massbelow the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod so as tobiasrotation of said rod in one direction of rotation in the absence ofhorizontal forces applied thereto.

4. An operating mechanism for a car coupler, said mechanism comprising arotatable rod adapted to be connected at one end to a lock lifter of acar coupler to operate said coupler upon rotation of said rod inonedirection, a handle portion formed at the other end of said rod torotate said rod on its axis of rotation and adapted to swing bodilyabout a single support at the corner of a car adjacent said handle, saidrod being bent between its ends so as to provide a mass to one side ofthe longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod to exert a momentoperating in one direction of rotation of said rod, said handle portionformed so as to provide part of a mass to the other side of thelongitudinal axis of rotation of said rod to exert a moment operating inthe other direction of rotation of said rod, said moments operating uponapplication of a horizontal force to said rod and substantiallycounterbalancing each other.

5. The combination with a car coupler having a movable lock and a rotarylock lifter for operating said lock upon rotation in one direction, of arotary operating rod connected. at one end. to said lock lifter tooperate said lock upon rotation of said rod and lifter in said onedirection of rotation the other end of said rod adapted to be rotatablysupported by a bracket attached to said car, a handle depending fromsaid other end of said rod forming part of a mass below the axis ofrotation of said rod to exert a moment operating in one direction ofrotation of said rod; said rod being formed so as to provide a massabove the: axis of rotation of said rod to exert a moment operating inthe other direction of rotation of saidrod, said moments, uponapplication of a horizontal force to said rod, operating tosubstantially counterbalance each other.

6. A rotary railway car coupler operating rod adapted to be connected atone end to a car coupler, and to be rotatably supported at the other endby a bracket attached to a railway car, said rod having one mass to oneside of the longitudinal axis of rotation oi said rod and another massto the opposite side of the longitudinal axis of rotation of saidrod,said masses being so proportioned and arranged about the longitudinalaxis of rotation of said rod that upon application of a horizontal forceto said rod said masses will exert substantially counterbalancingmoments operating in opposite directions of rotation of said rod.

7'. A railway coupler operating rod comprising, an inner end on, the rodadapted to be connected to and supported by a lock operating mechanismof a railway coupler, an outer end portion on the rod adapted to besupported for rotation about an axis of said outer end portion on arailway vehicle, said rod being rotatable about a line which is anextension of the axis of the outer end and which intersects the innerend of the rod, a handle portion depending from the outer end of the rodand extending below said line in an inoperative position of the rod, anintermediate zone on the coupler operating rod disposed above andforwardly of said line in the inoperative position of the rod.

8. In a railway coupler operating rod connected at its inner end to alock operating mechanism of a railway coupler and supported for rotationat its outer end by a bracket carried by a railway car and rotatableabout a line extending between the bracket and the inner end of the rod,a handle portion depending from the outer end of the rod in theinoperative position thereof and extending below said line, and anintermediate zone on the coupler operating rod including two angularlyrelated portions disposed in a substantially horizontal plane above andforwardly of said line in the inoperative position of the rod.

Gilpin July 9, 1935 Swint July 14, 1953

